Facing Facts: How to Properly Manage Incurable Chronic Pain

Everybody experiences pain. Most sources of pain are easy to identify and cure, and the symptoms typically go away in a short amount of time. Some types of pain, though, aren’t as easy to get rid of.

Chronic pain, or pain lasting more than six months, affects millions of people, sometimes for years on end. This type of pain is not always able to be cured, meaning that pain management is the only option for relief. People with chronic pain usually experience minor discomfort on their best days with occasional, intensely painful flare-ups that can be worsened by extra movement, stress and other triggers.

At Ideal Spine, we know that living in pain can take a toll on your life—constant feelings of discomfort limit your ability to do what you love and live a happy, healthy life. For our patients in Meridian, ID suffering from incurable chronic pain due to disc degeneration, arthritis and other back problems, we strive to provide solutions to keep you active and healthy through the pain.

In order to find some relief from chronic pain, you may need to be open to a wide number of strategies to find one, two or a combination of treatments that work for your body. Managing incurable chronic pain will take a treatment plan for both your body and your mind.

Treating the body

People with chronic pain may or may not know the source of their pain, which can make it difficult to cure or even treat. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of pain management treatments available.

Some techniques may be applicable at-home, including hot and cold therapy, exercise, and yoga. Others may require routine visits to doctors or specialists; for example, for steroid injections, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic.

Chiropractic care for chronic pain is a particularly useful treatment method because of its holistic approach to bodily wellness. Multiple techniques may be used, including spinal decompression and manipulation to re-align the spine, joints and tissues to promote better mobility and comfort. Chiropractors can also walk you through exercises and stretches that can improve mobility, aid in the decreasing of inflammation, and strengthen the muscles around the spine to help stabilize it and reduce pain symptoms.

Treating the mind

Beyond creating a treatment plan for physical pain management techniques, you will need to learn how to cope with pain mentally and emotionally. Incurable chronic pain is often made worse by stress and can cause depression. This can sometimes lead to a vicious cycle in chronic pain patients – the stress of living with pain each day makes pain worse, which causes more stress, and so on.

Mental focus and manipulation can help control chronic pain. Numerous theories of pain have suggested the mind plays a major role in the processing of pain. This is why, if you tend to focus on your pain, it usually ends up feeling worse. With practice, you can learn how to control and minimize the feelings of pain to get you through both the minor discomfort and some of the more intense pain days.

Techniques such as yoga, meditation and imagery control can help center your focus on things other than your source of pain, like your breathing, an external place or object, or another part of the body that is not painful.

Additionally, finding external support is a crucial component of managing pain, particularly for days when pain is intense. Find a network of supportive people, whether it is within your family, friend group, or other chronic pain patients.

Experience pain less

Ideal Spine uses the Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) method of care to help chiropractors serve patients to the fullest extent possible. If you suffer from incurable chronic pain and are seeking an effective method of relief, visit a CBP trained chiropractor and ask if spinal manipulations could help treat your pain.

Chiropractic BioPhysics® corrective care trained Chiropractors are located throughout the United States and in several international locations. CBP providers have helped thousands of people throughout the world realign their spine back to health, and eliminate a source of chronic back pain, chronic neck pain, chronic headaches and migraines, fibromyalgia, and a wide range of other health conditions. If you are serious about your health and the health of your loved ones, contact a CBP trained provider today to see if you qualify for care. The exam and consultation are often FREE. See www.CBPpatient.com for providers in your area.